5-star SG Meleek Thomas planning Kentucky visit: "I'm wanted there"

Kentucky men’s basketball coaches have been keeping plenty of tabs on five-star shooting guard Meleek Thomas. The 6-foot-3, 175-pound rising high school junior has the Wildcats’ full attention, especially over the last few months. Thomas earned an offer from UK in April and has seen multiple Wildcat coaches roaming the sidelines of his AAU games since the spring.

Kentucky’s interest actually dates back to last summer though. Thomas, who is considered the No. 6 overall prospect in the class of 2025 according to the On3 Industry Ranking, has been hearing from the likes of head coach John Calipari and associate coach Orlando Antigua since before his sophomore year of high school began.

“They doing a good job of recruiting me,” Thomas told KSR this week. “They don’t try to bother me — I’d say that’s the word for it. I know what Kentucky is and they let me know that there’s a spot there, they want me there, I’m wanted there. You feel that from the head coach and the assistant coach. I talk to Antigua, I talk to Cal. When you hear that from two coaches, you know it’s real. When they both show up to games and they came to my state (championship) game. Things like that, it’s love.”

Thomas already holds roughly two dozen Division I offers, including ones from the likes of Duke, Indiana, Kansas, Alabama, Louisville, UConn, Auburn, Tennessee, Villanova, and plenty more. Kentucky was a significant addition to his collection, though.

“I was definitely expecting it,” Thomas said of his UK offer. “I work for every offer but that was definitely one of the offers I wanted growing up and just being in the game. I wasn’t really surprised, it was just a blessing.”

After talking to the staff I am Blessed to receive a division 1 offer from the University of Kentucky #BBN #agtg pic.twitter.com/rqFyCvCmNK

— Meleek Thomas (@ThomasMeleek) April 26, 2023

He’s taken multiple unofficial visits so far, making stops at Penn State, Pittsburgh, Indiana, and Villanova since last summer. Although no date has been scheduled at this time, Thomas has been looking to visit UK for a while now and says one will happen in the near future.

“I’ll go there soon,” he added.

Thomas is on the tail end of what’s been a busy offseason of basketball camps and events. The Pittsburgh (PA) Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center product was in Orlando, FL last week for the NBPA Top 100 Camp, where Calipari and assistant coach Chin Coleman were in attendance to watch Thomas and other top Kentucky targets perform. Now, Thomas is in North Augusta, SC for the annual Nike Peach Jam Tournament where UK coaches will likely stop by to watch him in action once again throughout the rest of the week

Playing up a year for the New Heights Lightning on the EYBL circuit, Thomas has been tearing it up on the hardwood. Coming into this week’s Peach Jam, he had appeared in 17 games for his Nike-based AAU program, averaging 13.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 steals per outing on shooting splits of 48.9/36.5/74.3.

If you want to catch him in action this week, the NH Lightning will play again at least three more times. Thomas and the rest of his teammates will suit up on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. All games will be livestreamed through Twitch, which you can find through the link here.

Wednesday, July 5 vs. JL3 | 12:00 PM EST (Court 3/4)
Thursday, July 6 vs. Team CP3 | 6:00 PM EST (Court 2)
Friday, July 7 vs. UPLAY (CAN) | 6:00 PM EST (Court 2)